#i mean girlie as a gender neutral term!

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

✧ the cards are never in your favour ✧

(joshua x tarot! reader) part one

part : 1 I 2 I 3

joshua never thought that one day he would put his trust into the mystical. here's how it all started:

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩

and the next day:

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩

(a/n: i know there is technically no romance. but think of it as prequel to their story!!)

[rin-hanarin]

I just love seeing the same 5 to 10 specific people going crazy over Lucanis here, you know who you are and I salute you 🫡

[vampirememory]

quality ✧ do you need to lower or raise your standards? [Love PAC]

Hello! I believe this is my first pick a card of 2024, I hope you appreciate the topic I chose. This is something that I recently had to recognize and deal with myself, so hopefully you find this reading helpful.

Pick a photo or a number one through three and continue reading to find your reading.

One

No, absolutely not. If anything, your standards are too low. You are like me, at least myself a few weeks/months ago when I did not value myself. You need to understand that you are 100% valuable and loved, and that there is nothing that can depreciate your value. You may have been overconsuming readings, questioning as to why you continue getting into toxic relationships or completely lack a relationship and it's because you have a negative sense of self. Listening to self-worth or self concept subliminals may help you. You are worthy of a healthy, happy relationship but you need to be healthy yourself first. Now keep in mind, healthy does not mean without illnesses. I know from my experience with depression, I will never be healthy, but you CAN have a healthy outlook on life and a healthy sense of self, which is what you are looking for. Especially for my mentally ill friends, no one (not here, at least) is expecting you to be 100% healthy but to be as healthy as you can be, if that makes sense.

Two

Girlie, I hate to tell you but your standards are high as fuck. But is that a bad thing? You tell me. To be clear, when I say girlie I am 100% being gender neutral, this reading is for everyone ^-^! You're giving boss bitch energy, but are you actually a boss bitch? One thing about having high standards is that you also need to meet those standards yourself and you need to ask yourself "would someone like that want to date me"? For example, if you're really aiming for a basketball player or the top CEO, are you actually in a mental and physical space where that will happen? Are you out on the courts, networking and integrating yourself into sports environments? Are you working your way up to the top, making connections with higher ups and building a good reputation? I think you may have good standards, but you aren't reaching them yourself or not putting yourself in environments where you'll meet said person. Also make sure you are actually maintaining those standards too. If you think education is important, and you're actively in education and want someone else who is too, why settle for someone who hates education or isn't looking to educate themselves? Things like that make all the difference. If you want to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk too.

Three

This pile gives me much softer vibes than the other two piles. Your standards and romantic requests may be more traditional, you may want the house and the kids and the white picket fence and that's totally fine! I think you're doing well in terms of your standards, you uphold them and you aren't putting yourself in situations where you are with people who are against that dream or against those standards. I do need to warn you, however, that there are a lot of exploitive people out there, especially when it comes to wanting a more traditional homelife. Waiting is a completely fine thing to do. Don't jump at the first person that looks nice and ticks all the boxes because they may be lying. I don't see terrible things happening for you but I feel like I needed to include a warning. Just be careful and you'll get your wishes <3.

Thats all for today my friends! Check out my masterlist for my previous readings and remember to stay safe in this crazy world! Feel free to send asks with any topics you would like to see in the future.

[olderthannetfic]

Things I hate that I thought were tumblr exclusives, but that I've put up with IRL this year: being called girlie, bitch, babygirl, and sweetie and then getting people get mad at me when I say I'm a trans man. "That's not a gendered term!" "It's gender-neutral!" That's nice. I set a boundary and since you've decided not to respect it, we don't talk now. Yes, even if we're on a group project together. The final is only worth 20% of our grade. I have a 98.7% in this class. I can take the hit to my grade.

There is no girlie bitch babygirl sweetie here. My gender is many things. It is none of those. I don't care that people tell me this means I hate AAVE or I'm a gender essentialist on tumblr or being called sensitive IRL. Find a babygirl girlie sweetie bitch to go cry to.

There's immense power in realizing you can just opt out of shit. You know that quote, "canceling plans is like heroin"? Shutting down is like a really good dose of Clonazepam. Sucks that your grade is about to suffer. Sounds like a you problem.

--

[oh-to-be-a-murderer]

If its TL and u DR "if I call you a term that is meant for a gender you aren't, I wasn't trying to be offensive, I genuinely call people gendered terms in a non gendered way. If it offends you please let me know and I promise to stop it immediately"

🏳️‍🌈 TAGS I CALLS PEOPLE IN A GENDER NEUTRAL TERM!!!!! 🏳️‍🌈

So if you know my I love to avoid your general pronouns and decide to go with some that is a synonym of 'sibling'. For example instead of saying he/she I would say girl/bro. Now the terms I use to address people may sometimes make them think I am misgendering them but I mean it in a completely gender neutral way.

When I call you:

Girl/Gurl:

You don't necessarily have to identify as a female or be poly, I use that as a gender neutral way of saying "friend".

Girly/Gurly:

You are specifically my friend and when I add a 'y' to it, you are one of my more favourite friends. Again, gender neutral.

Gurly boo/ Gurly pop:

You are definitely a man, I don't remember the last time I called a girl that. You have to be a man for me to call you these.

Bruh/bro:

This is again gender neutral, you don't have to identify as a man or poly for me to call you these.

Brother:

You are mostly women, unless you're not and I'm trying to be a bit professional. Only call men that who are much older than me and I need to let them feel comfortable with me.

Gurly Gurl:

You are my absolute bestie doesn't matter gender and I absolutely adore you.

[lonepower]

ok outlaws/kd5 girlies(gender-neutral), what are the postgame thoughts? I have Ideas™ for things I think would be fun, but nothing concrete or connected enough to turn into an actual story yet, and I'm curious how the other people who've been in the fandom longer than I have see the Trailblazer crew continuing on from here!

(own musings under the cut-)

There's a lot of potential in Jet Kordo and the Miyuki Trade League imo. If I do end up writing any sort of plot-focused fic, it'll almost definitely involve them. I think Kay would be a good fit for them - they're clearly not strictly above-board, but they seem to operate independent of the syndicates and have their own practices & codes of ethics, which I think would suit her. And I think she would be interested in catching up with Kordo, if for no other reason than to meet the man behind all the messages. (Also, more importantly, they're an invention of this game, which means I don't have to worry about contradicting 5 million years of convoluted and already-contradictory lore.)

I think they would suit ND as well, actually. He's left a lot of his Separatist programming behind, but not all of it, and he's no fan of the Jedi or the Republic. I can see him slotting the trade league in as a surrogate/successor for the trade federation (which, if it weren't for Dooku meddling in it, sounds like it wouldn't really have been that bad... (<- hasn't watched the clone wars and doesn't plan to)) 

Related, I'm really curious on where we all stand re: what ND actually likes and wants. The game leaves a lot of it up for interpretation; his whole arc is about regaining agency and coming to terms with the fact that he's not just "a tool to be used," (😫😭) but that's... sort of where it ends? He knows what he isn't, now, but I'm not sure he has any more idea of what he is or what "freedom" means than Kay does. He says he enjoys having a purpose, but... what would that be? Lots of potential. Much to ponder.

I do think he genuinely enjoys traveling the galaxy. All of the comms dialogues where he sounds the most interested are about locations, land features, the people therein (for all that he professes to prefer solitude - he doesn't like interacting with people, but he seems interested in observing them). It's another reason I think he'd actually be happy continuing as a smuggler or trader. But people are complex, that can't be his only source of fulfillment. For some reason I got it into my head that he'd be a surprisingly good artist, but I'm curious what others envision for him (◡_◡)

Kay says that having the Trailblazer isn't enough to be really free, but as mentioned it's a recurring theme that she has no idea what being free actually entails (and Qira certainly isn't helping. go pull that cryptic shit on someone else). I think once the death mark is off her shoulders, she'd start to realize that maybe she can just live as she has been, and maybe Nix and ND and the Trailblazer and all the new friends she's made are enough, at least for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of: in-game the death mark is sort of left as a case of No Ontological Inertia, but there's a drabble/plot bunny somewhere in there where it's explicitly Vail who calls it off. Just imagine how that would go. Imagine how smug ND would be. It would be so funny. please

After the wild cards dlc, one of her more Kay-like goals is "get rich enough that I can enter the competition legitimately". ND is actually in the audience this time. Along with Nix, to prove a point, because I'm still salty a) that ND was surprised by my being good at sabacc, and b) I won that goddamn game without framing anyone. I freaking HAD THEM when that bomb went off, I am so mad-

It's a bit of a stretch, but I also really want Kay to be the one who smuggles R2 and 3PO up to Jabba's back door in the beginning of ROTJ. (Lando knows her! Presumably he knows she broke in & out of the palace once already! It could be plausible!) This is mainly because I want to inflict R2 (chaos incarnate even among astromechs) on ND (vocally hates astromechs). Also Kay would be super weirded out by Luke even without knowing the Jedi thing and it would be fun to make them interact.

They still would do their best to avoid the rebels. When the Empire falls 6ish months later, how do they react? How much would life even change for them as smugglers (who would presumably find themselves at odds with any sort of organized government, even an ideal/democratic one)? Does the sudden power vacuum mess them up, or does it make life even more profitable as people struggle to function without structure in a transitional period?

I don't have actual full-fledged fic premises for any of these points and I really do want to know what (if anything) the other handful of people in this fandom have come up with, so if you have additions/objections/other ideas, this is your cue. pls come yell i'm brainrot about this game........

[prentissluvr]

i dont have all of my sam thots and dean thoughts just yet but I had to send in this bc I completely forgot about meg! sam

and its a damn shame that we didn't see more of that bc it solidified my stance on being a sam girlie

we got at least 3 episodes of demon dean (i have not seen him yet i've only heard about it) but we got like less than half an hour with meg! sam and honestly we deserved more with him

meg! sam made me feel lots of things LOLL

(i wanted to be jo SO BAD in that episode LMAO)

now i need your thots on him please :p

KJDFSJL NO BECAUSE... NOOO I CANT thinking about the amount of meg!sam edits i've seen in the past few days. thinking about the one saved in my camera roll. thinking about throwing up pissing my pants projectile vomiting and passing the fuck out. i reiterate tho, i'm normal!! i'm so so so normal and i don't feel things about it!!!!!!!

i'm honestly still like borderline unsure about how nsfw i want to get on this blog, but uhhh i'm just gonna start typing and see where my dirty fucking mind takes me!

cw : highly suggestive!! no smut, but still absolutely no minors!! MDNI!! contains condescending/mean/possessed sam, but also sweet sam too <33. use of gendered terms, but it is gender inclusive to fem, masc, and gn as much as i could make it! horrible writing it's genuinely just me going feral :))

sooo basically for me the worst (best) part of meg!sam was his voice! it's so bad (never have i ever heard anything hotter in my life). IDK I DONT EVEN THINK I CAN FORM A COHERENT THOUGHT OVER THIS NOT GONNA LIE. uhm uhhh ummmm uhhhh uhmmmm.

so basically so basically, essentially, wwowowowowowowowifjhshf alright lets focus on one thing at a time.

we'll start with that goddamn voice of his. the way it goes from teasing, condescending to deeper, more gravelly and matter-of-fact and then back to condescending LIKE WHOO IM GONNA NEED TO TAKE A LAP. idk just thinking about his large hand on the back of your head, maybe tangled in your hair if the way you wear it allows for that, and his veiny forearm visible through your peripheral vision as he says "open up.. that's a girl" like he did to jo😭😭😭 (or he's says "thaaat's it" to keep things gender neutral, dragging out the "that's" for an extra second, that extra gravel in his condescending tone).

and while this is in possessed!sam context, he'd definitely say things like that normally, i do personally envision him to be less condescending and more sincere. either way, hot as fuck if you ask me. also this isn't meg!sam, but in season seven he says "good girl" and i do listen to that clip several times a day, i am so serious when i say that and i have no shame about it!! i have daddy issues so i do not care!!! so yeah he also says good girl/boy/whatever variation you enjoy best <3 uhmmm yeah but the main point is his hot as fuck voice, right next to your ear with his breath tickling you sensitive skin. especially with that whisper. oh god the whisper😭 and along with "that's a girl," there's atta girl and he'd use that one too so i'll go die in a hole :))) but yeah he genuinely thinks you're so good for him so expect that praise, whether you want it sweet or mean.

then we also have his facial expressions!! the smirk he uses to rile you up or that he flashes you, all mean and haughty because he knows he's getting to you. the fake pity too!! lord help me, once again the utterly fake pity just falls under that condescending persona that was so hot about meg!sam. i'm just gonna use photo evidence and you can imagine him looking at you like that!! enjoy!

last thing i have to say about meg!sam is manhandling!! ahahaahahahaahahah i'm normal and okay!! (this is a cry for help i need him so bad). um yeah while i hate the context of the manhandling of jo in the episode because it's crossing so many boundaries, i will still enjoy the fact that he is hot. so yeah! have fun thinking about sam whirling you around and pinning you between his chest and nearest surface, hand on your forehead to tilt your chin up and give him full access to the skin of your neck. his other hand is pinning your wrist to whatever surface is behind you, and your own free hand is tangled in his hair and he lays wet, desperate kisses all over your neck and collarbone. that's all hahahahaha :)))) feeling so sane right now!!

[invidiia]

yandere poe and ranpo (together and platonic) with a teenager reader who had a bad childhood and coping it by being a girly girl ( getting they nails done, having a bunch of stuff animals, wears pink, love’s makeup, etc btw this are just examples because girly girl can mean many thing you know? SO SORRY if this is too much)

❐ - platonic yandere!ranpo and platonic yandere!poe (together) with a teenage reader into girly things

note ; first off, i'm sorry if this wasn't what you expected! i usually give my own interpretation of them as yanderes, and i usually just do what i thini would happen unless someone gets specific about it. on the other hand, i'm so glad to be getting into this request!! i've got over 8 requests in my inbox about platonic yandere ranpoe and i'm just??? y'all must like them a whole lot!! but yeah, if anyone has any other fics like this, then i wanna see, because i've never seen anyone do this?! i love ranpoe and platonic yanderes, so i'm glad to be combining them!! enough from me, onto the hcs!

prompt ; ranpo and poe are supportive of their traumatized little teenager!!

warning ; platonic yandere themes, stalking, kidnapped reader, gender neutral terms used but implied fem!reader, romantic ranpoe

masterlist - rules - previous

RANPO and POE are incredibly supportive of their teenager! they just think it's the cutest thing ever, their child being into all the girly things. the two love it!! they think it just suits you so well!

if they kidnapped you, there's a really good chance that they already knew that you enjoyed such girly things.

ranpo already knew, obviously. if you didn't open up to them when they brought you there? no need - ranpo pretty much stalked you and found out pretty much everything about you before you even knew you were going to be living with him!

the detective shamelessly stalked you, conveniently appearing in the same places as you, no matter where you ended up. the candy store? he liked candy, too! the clothing store? he was shopping for a lady-friend! although he never outright said he was following you, he just had a reason to he in the exact places as you, all the time.

and so did poe. when you happened to bump into the reappearing detective while you shopped, the taller man was right next to him, joining ranpo while he happened to be in the same place as you. every time you met him, he had a raccoon on his shoulders, the animal's tail swinging while you smiled at it.

sometimes, he even offered to pay for your stuff if the two of them walked up while you were paying. poe would conveniently look at your wallet with just barely enough money to pay for what you were about to buy, both his and ranpo's eyes catching the cute charms and accessories that hung off the purse.

of course, you always smiled at them and declined. sometimes, ranpo and poe just insisted, and you gave in, allowing them to pay for what you bought. it was just so nice of them! at first you thought nothing of it, maybe it was just the couple wanting to do something nice for a teenager who barely had enough to pay for their bag? but as it kept happening, you got confused, and began to think a bit more. you even asked them at one point, but the taller of the couple just waved his hand and spoke, "we just felt like it, don't worry."

so when you woke up in a strange place away from the comforts of your pink-decorated bedroom, you didn't expect your kidnappers to be the nice couple that you bumped into fairly often when in public.

upon finding out about your childhood, ranpo and poe are just absolutely compassionate. they felt horrible for you. coos of sympathy and pity were heard every time they noticed something new, like the colorful bracelets on your hand, your painted nails, your pink clothing, hairclips, everything. you'd grown used to it after some time, but the couple just couldn't help but get a tiny bit sad while they were reminded of the reason why you were the way you are.

some time after opening up just a bit more, ranpo and poe gladly allowed you to do what you pleased. they happily went shopping with you, following behind you while you skipped through the store, picking out nail polishes and looking at the couple as a way of asking if you could get it. the answer was never no, as they were happy to get you what you want. sort of as an apology for just taking you! it's okay to take advantage of that, poe was rich and felt bad he kidnapped you, so might as well 🤷‍♂️

when you got your nails done, ranpo sat with you while the manicurist took a file to your fingers. if you had a free hand, he held that during the process if the worker accidentally hurt you while doing your nails.

sometimes, even poe tagged along, sitting on the other side while you spoke, while karl jumped off his shoulder and climbed onto yours. you flinched a bit every time, while the person working on your nails sighed in annoyance at the movement. but it didn't matter, because you had ranpo and poe, and those were the only two you needed to be happy with you.

[n0gender0nlyswag]

i think cis people make not using terms which could potential upset a trans person more harder than it really is. "I mean it in a gender neutral way though!" so do I, I don't have the female gender in mind when saying girl or girly, neither do I the male gender when saying guy or dude, but I can see how it can make someone uncomfortable so I'll stop calling them that? And it's not exactly like someones name or pronouns where after a whlie of knowing them you might not think before speaking and say the wrong ones, and this is coming from someone who refers to most people as Dude or Bro.

[kiunlo]

i hate that we just let cis people use the terms afab and amab when they're writing their stupid ass heterosexual fanfics like. okay so we got a afab reader fic? cool beans. except the "reader" is so very clearly a cishet woman that it's not even funny. like girly idk how to tell you this but not every afab person is a woman 💀 that's the whole fucking point of a person specifying that they are afab: they were assigned female at birth, and that experience of growing up being percieved by others as a girl may be important for them to mention, BUT THEY MAY NO LONGER IDENTIFY AS A WOMAN. and i feel as though reader fanfic as it is right now would simply benefit greatly with people simply being fucking HONEST and just writing "cishet woman reader" instead of "afab reader" because we all fucking know that's what you really mean. don't even get me started on the people who write "fem reader" fics that still make it clear that yeah it's a woman reader, but a CIS one, not a trans one. i have NEVER read and i mean NEVER!!!! read a fucking reader fic that could have EVER been read as if the reader was a trans woman. a trans man, sure, but never trans women! the times that i HAVE seen "amab reader" fanfic? again, same problem. very clearly a cis male reader. and the gender neutral reader fanfics are barely "gender neutral" at all. like it is so SEVERELY hard to find any type of queer or trans reader fics. the catering is always only towards cis readers and nobody else, and with people falsely categorising their fics as "afab reader" or "gender neutral reader" when the actual content of the fic makes it clear that it's a cis woman reader makes it even fucking harder to find the shit that's actually queer.

[superkirbylover]

kinda a stupid question so i would understand not answering it but what was your assigned birth gender?

again you don't have to answer if you don wanna i was just curious

nah i don't mind at all! hope you don't mind i elaborate a little too

i'm AFAB (assigned female at birth). despite this, i never really identified with being feminine. my mom was like this too; both of us can be described as tomboys. we have moments where we do like being feminine and present as such, but for the most part we're neutral or masculine. in my case, though, i definitely leaned more masculine.

i'm sure i've told this story a thousand times, but i like telling it: when i was on scratch (and later, roblox), people often didn't realize what my gender was. my mic quality was poor and i was at the ripe age of 11, where boys and girls would sound really similar still. people would hear my voice, and either refer to me with "he" or "she." i used to correct people on this, but because of how common it was, i stopped. i wasn't sure why, but i thought it was funny that people were confused on my gender. hell, i laughed when i first called with scratchU8 and BenDaMan (now known as nebita) on skype. nebita thought i sounded like a boy, and scratchU8 admitted the same. it's a time i look back fondly on. this trend continued with future friends, and while i corrected them, part of me wish i hadn't. so, a year later i told my friends a few things: don't call me a queen, don't call me ma'am or any feminine terms. basically, treat me like a boy in everything but call me a girl if needed. my friends did their best to do that. they would sometimes say they forgot i was a girl because of how i acted, and i would say sometimes i wish i was a boy.

i don't remember when, but i believe when i was... 16, i was starting to hear about other identities outside of being transgender. i heard of being trans when i was 12, though knew little of it. all i know is it meant if you are trans, it means you were once a girl and now a boy and vice versa. when i started to hear about other things, like nonbinary and etc, i tilted my head. there was a classmate at my school who said they were genderfluid the previous year, but i was unfortunately caught in the anti-sjw youtube era so i thought it was just a ploy to go "ha!! you assumed my gender!!"

i looked up these alternate genders, and i remembered the genderfluid classmate and looked up genderfluid, reading about it. and when i read that it could mean that someone felt like they were a boy, a girl, neither or both at the same time, a switch clicked in my head. "yeah!!" i thought, "this is how i feel!!" i didn't dislike being a girl and certainly didn't desire bottom surgery (or top surgery at the time), but i liked being perceived as masculine. i regretted when i corrected fans of mine on my gender because it would mean one less person using he/him or they/them. i hated being seen as a girly person, but i didn't loathe my womanhood. it's why i felt neutral being called a woman and "ma'am" but felt more connection with being called a man and "guy."

that day, i put she/he/they on my bios. and it hasn't left since

[rodolfoparras]

read that post and honestly i just need to rant a lil bit

it just gets me really frustrated how entitled some fem readers/authors are

scrolling through tumblr, sometimes i come across f!reader fics and that's fine yk i just scroll past without interacting

but this specific time, the author went "cw: implied female reader" and then proceeded to only refer to the reader as female, pronouns and adjectives. like girlie that isn't implied it's forced down your throat

then after scrolling i check the tags, only to find that they had the audacity to tag it as gender neutral. no fem reader tag, only gender neutral

as well as people tagging gender neutral as male..... just makes me frustrated

sorry for the rant just needed to get that out

- 🌷

Don’t apologize for the rant! I totally get your frustration.

A lot of times I’ll read a fic and the reader will be short, or “drown” in the male character’s clothes or be very passive when it comes to taking charge in the character and readers reactions which is all fine and dandy, some men are short, do not like to take charge, and are less muscular but what makes me personally uncomfortable is that I’ve seen those characteristics commonly used in fem reader fics, and I only see them used in gn pieces so I as a male reader already know who the author is thinking of here even though pronouns are omitted

I also cant help but wonder if fem readers / authors genuinely do not understand certain terms used, for example that “gn” doesn’t mean “fem reader” because that’s what it feels like sometimes? To them fem readers are the default so “everything is meant for fem readers so of course gn is only applicable for fem readers even if it stands for gender neutral”

I also cant help but feel a wee bit protective of mlm characters bc male readers are excluded in everything so when I see mizrak or olrox I cant help but get excited for the abundance of content that is meant for me to read. When fem reader/authors want to put those characters in the gn category they are bound to exclude us bc those pieces are rarely catered toward us

Anyways need him so bad🧎🏻‍♂️

[emilykaldwen]

how do you make a original character for a fanfic?

Anon, I'm sorry for delay in answering this but you see, when you dropped this into the inbox, I legit sat up and went 'My Time Has Come'. You can ask my citadel girlies (gender-neutral) about my passion for character creation because I like to smack them in the face with it (affectionately) on the regular. And here's the thing, I'm nowhere near the Word on how to do this. In fact, I am genuinely surprised to have gotten this ask. So thank you? I'm glad you like my writing!

There's like, five million ways I could do this sort of breakdown, touching on internalized misogyny and why we connect with the media we do and how this all ties into our mental health at the time but I don't think that's what you're asking about, so I'm gonna pull back on myself and talk about how I create original characters for Fic.

I feel like character creation, especially in fanfic is such a nuanced discussion that I don't think has really been talked about but we'll be here for 84 years if I launch into this now.

ALL OF THIS IS MY OWN OPINION. I'm just a rando on the internet and have my own approaches and opinions on things. If you feel like I'm specifically calling you out, I can assure you, I'm not, and I will not entertain people getting snippy at me because they want to be offended because they think I criticized them personally on the internet.

SO! HOW DO I CREATE AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER FOR FAN FICTION?

Questions, my friend, and the most important one is:

Why am I creating this character?

You need to be honest with yourself. Only yourself. Not the answer you think people will want to hear, or the one that you'll be least embarrassed to share. There are no wrong answers here, creativity comes from so many places within us. THIS SETS THE EXPECTATION.

Why am I creating this character? Is it because you have a crush on the actor? Is it because you want to be the pretty princess and have everyone fawn and fall in love with you? Is it because everyone is stupid in this story and someone needs to clean up the mess? Is it because you see a gap in the story that you feel should be told? All? None?

(In my opinion, the only 'wrong' answer is that you're creating a self-insert avatar to punish yourself. I've been there. It was not a great place, but I wasn't in therapy at the time. I eventually got over punishing myself in fic form)

For me, character creation comes from trying to add something to the story. The existence of my character should have interesting ramifications through the story. For me, if I'm going through the trouble of creating a character that fits into this world, I want them to have effect and change. There should be change. If nothing is changing in the story, then I'll just go read/watch the source material than sit around making someone who basically boils down to a spectator of what's happening.

Characters in our stories are real. They are living and breathing.

Example 1: I have an OC, Myranda Greyjoy. Instead of flying to Storm's End, Aemond flies to Pyke and brings her back to King's Landing. You know what that means? Vhagar doesn't go chomp on Luke, and Luke likely makes it back home unharmed or stays the night at Storm's End until it's safer to fly. So that means blood and cheese doesn't happen, and the war doesn't kick off immediately (which follows canon in terms of Luke's death being the trigger for blood and cheese which in turn means no one is gonna back down).

Example 2: In one of my original drafts of The Maiden and the Drowning Boy, Abby was at Harrenhal when Daemon took the castle (in Fire & Blood, this happens before Storm's End). In the book, Aemond is sent to Storm's End to treat with Borros, but if I kept this event in the fic, it would be in character for Aegon to mount Sunfyre and grab Aemond to go fuck Daemon up because his wife, the Queen, is being held by the enemy. Now, while this is super interesting, it had the potential to cut the dance of dragons down real short and quite frankly? I didn't want to deviate too much from the original dance in terms of some major events because that means that i have to come up with all of that stuff too. My ass doesn't have time for that. (but it's a cool idea)

Okay, so you know why you're creating your OC for whatever reason. Here's the next thing to understand:

CREATING YOUR CHARACTER/STORY FOR POPULARITY/VIRAL/EVERYONE MUST READ THIS IS ONLY GOING TO LEAD TO HEARTBREAK.

You've heard it time and again: write for yourself! and you're like the fuck does that mean asshole? I know, I know! And I really have to thank the AO3 Subreddit for helping me clarify what this means and how it impacts me.

Engagement is Down across the board, across all fandoms. It has nothing to do with you as a writer, it has no reflection on the quality of your work.

Comments are rare. Sometimes they never happen. It fucking sucks. I hate it. I've heard friends go into the lack of comment engagement. Validation is nice. We thrive on it! It feels so good to be told how awesome your work is, what people connected with, etc.

You cannot write for the comments. You cannot write for the external validation. You cannot maintain a sense of stable mental health if you are focused on the feedback.

So find your people.

I found mine! I've been working on my fic since NaNo in November 2022 and am only just now getting ready to start publishing, and I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't because my fic made my one friend happy. Now? I have a handful of people that I've cultivated real friendships with that support and cheer me on just as I support and cheer them on. They're my audience. Everyone else? Are fantastically appreciated extra dessert.

(Perfectionism is a real thing that so many of us actually do struggle with and if you're not meeting the specific standard that you think you should be meeting because you're a better writer than that super popular fic, you are going to make yourself miserable)

So what does this all boil down to?

YOU ARE ENOUGH.

You do not have to put some deep political dramatic plot scaffolding around your story in order for your OC to be taken seriously and so you can be 'allowed' to have your OC and the canon character hook up. This is YOUR story. You get to write what you want! You get to see how this story will go!

but if you want people to be receptive to your OC and the story at large, then you need to work on making your character living and breathing in the story.

Rattle test! Have a few friends who are trusted to talk through your character and plot and make sure they aren't afraid to ask the hard questions.

Me: Should Jace accidentally punch Abby in this scene cause she tried to get between them Me and Friend at the same time: Aegon would kill him, let's not do that.

I had another possible plot line where this other character was flirting with Aegon. It sounded cool in my head! but talking through it, it just really didn't work out or make much sense.

Anyway, I can go on and on about this subject, and probably write a whole thesis on this delving into how character creation in fan works should be an act of love, not self punishment, and how internalized misogyny plays a huge role in why people are usually averse to reading OC fan fic (in that I mean, the OCs often hate other women, are 'not like other girls' but everyone loves them, etc).

It's hard creating OCs to get people to read them. There's a ton of people out there who simply will not read OC work on principal.

But a final note:

Original characters =/= Reader Inserts. By that I mean, the whole reader fic genre is written specifically for the reader to imagine themselves in the situation. Original characters may be an author insert, but they are not the reader cipher. also original character =/= author insert either, but also you should be totes honest with yourself if you are writing your own insert. It's not a bad thing, it just gives your expectations.

[ecocharlier]

btw whenever I say bro, bruh, guys, dude, man, girl, or girlie, I mean it in the most gender neutral way possible that you can imagine, I say it irl a lot to refer to my friends (guys or girls) and are interchangeable terms for me, if I ever call anyone something they're not comfortable with please tell me, and know it's not done out of malice, it's just the way I talk 👊🏻😔

[genderqueerdykes]

i’m a younger guy, who lives with his parents. my mom isn’t very conservative but my dad is, and he’s the main one who tries to influence me. he’s not outright homophobic or transphobic, but he’s very iffy about it all.

i call myself a guy because i’m not sure. i’m AMAB, but lately i’ve been questioning my gender and sexuality. im pretty sure im bisexual, but im most confused about gender.

what do you call it when someone wants to be feminine but not necessarily a girl? sort of like non-binary but in a girly way as opposed to androgynous. (sorry if i’m not using correct terminology, i haven’t had much freedom to explore the community.) I like the pronouns He and They for myself, but when someone calls me she (almost always as a joke) it fills me with joy, just to be received femininely.

Do you have any kind of advice? I know that was a lot and i’m sorry, but thank you for your time.

hello there!

sorry for the delay in replying! hope you have been doing well and are safe! sorry to hear your dad is such a hard figure to work with, some folks just refuse to let go of the control they have over others. i hope you will be able to spend more time with your mom and other supportive folks who will be able to help you come out or experiment with being yourself!

that would be transfeminine & transfemme for you, since all they mean is transitioning to femininity! femby and femme enby are also terms i've seen used! demigirl or gxrl may also apply. i'm glad you're figuring out what you want to do with yourself and your presentation! you do not have to identify as a girl to be feminine, and i hope you're able to get what you need in order to feel more like yourself! and im really glad being called she gives you so much joy, you deserve that!

the sky is really the limit with being nonbinary, you are allowed to dictate what you do with it and how you present. nonbinary people don't have to go full tilt into androgyny or gender neutrality, i know many nonbinary femmes! and if you find that more specific labels don't fit you, that's okay! calling yourself transfem/me nonbinary would get the point across very easily, but you are free to choose how you express it! take care, good luck out there, let us know if you need anything else, we're glad to have heard from you!

[that-gothic-glitterball]

(Reblogging this on all my accounts)

Re: terms of endearment, slang (?) terms

I use terms such as Darling, or Love etc as a term to address people. This is not indicative of my relationship or opinion towards them, and nor do o intend for it to make people feel uncomfortable. If I call you these things it is entirely platonic and friendly. Please let me know if you do lot wish me to use these, or if I make you uncomfortable. Thanks!

Equally, I also use slang terms such as Dude, bro or queen gender neutrally. I do not intend for these to have anything to do with gender, and I do not use them in a gendered way. If you do not wish for me to use specific words for you, then let me know! I also say ‘sir’, ‘señor’ and ‘ma’am’ as a kind of ‘sir this is a restaurant’ thing in a joking way, or as a show of surprise (yes it’s kinda weird). I do not mean for this to be directed at anyone’s gender.

I am myself nonbinary-generfluid, so I understand not wanting these words to be used. I will of course not use (for example) ‘girlie’ to address a trans boy or ‘bro’ to address a trans girl, unless the specific person says otherwise

Thanks for your time!